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African
Art - Currently
Unavailable
Aminatta Forna, a young black journalist,
looks at African art through African eyes, as she visits artists in western
Africa and interviews curators and scholars. The Paris Exposition of 1900
first introduced African art to Europeans; the subsequent influence of
African art can be seen in the work of such artists as Picasso, Matisse,
and Modigliani. Artists and curators stress the need to view African art
in the context of the cultures and traditions that produced it. Museum
director Samual Sidibe of the National Museum of Mali offers insight into
the meaning of the art of the Bambana, Dogon, and Djenne people. Other
commentators are curators Kirk Varnedoe, Museum of Modern Art, New York
City, and Susan Vogel, Yale Art Gallery; and Professors Henry Louis Gates
and Cornel West of Harvard University.
Curator's
Comments: Effective
in making the point that it is important to understand the context in
which African art is created and used. One African scholar points out
that older objects are considered more valuable by Europeans; not so in
Africa where objects serve a function and thus are used up, updated, or
revised as needed. DATE: 1995
COUNTRY: Great Britain
CREDITS:
Director: Aminatta Forna
Producing Agency: RM Arts; BBC-TV
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
47 minutes Color
TOPICS:
Black artists
History--Africa
Sculpture
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